Hey there! Have you heard about Instagram story templates? If not, you‘re missing out on one of the hottest trends on Instagram right now. Keep reading and I‘ll explain everything you need to know to start using templates for your brand or business.
Contents
- What Are Instagram Story Templates?
- Why You Should Be Using Templates
- Why Templates Are Trending
- Why Templates Beat Built-In Interactive Stickers
- Tips for Creating Effective Templates
- Step-By-Step Guide to Your First Template
- Apps to Easily Design Templates
- Sizing Your Templates Correctly
- Encouraging User Engagement
- Gaining Audience Insights
- Growing Your Follower Base with Templates
- Key Takeaways
What Are Instagram Story Templates?
Let‘s start with the basics. An Instagram story template is a pre-designed layout you can customize with your own content to easily create engaging stories.
Templates come in different formats like questions, polls, fill-in-the-blanks, quizzes, and more. You just add your own text, photos, videos, and interactive stickers to personalize it.
Many templates also have built-in branding elements like colors, fonts, and graphics so your content matches your aesthetics. Some feature interactive add-ons like sliders or questions to encourage participation.
Once you customize a template, you can share it to your story. When people see your template, they can screenshot it, fill it out, and share it with their own followers. This is where the magic happens!
Here‘s an example of a fill-in-the-blank template:
And here‘s an example of how a follower might fill it out:
As you can see, templates make it super easy for anyone to create a complete, on-brand story!
Why You Should Be Using Templates
Wondering why templates are worth the hype? Here are some of the top benefits:
Increase Engagement
Templates give your followers a quick and fun way to engage with your brand. Rather than just viewing your story, they can actively participate by filling it out and sharing it.
In fact, over 58% of users say they‘re more likely to engage with branded templates vs regular photos or videos, according to Socialinsider. Templates get people invested!
Expand Your Reach
When your followers share your template, it puts your brand and username in front of their own followers. This word-of-mouth effect helps you gain exposure to entirely new audiences.
One baby products brand gained over 65,000 new followers in 2 weeks after launching some viral templates. That‘s the power of templates!
Gain User-Generated Content
Every time someone fills out your template and shares it, they‘re creating customized user-generated content for your brand. You can repost the best responses as testimonials or reviews.
Learn About Your Audience
The responses people share offer valuable intel about your followers‘ interests, preferences, habits and demographics. You can use these insights to improve your content.
Showcase Personality
Templates allow you to showcase your brand‘s humor and creativity. This authenticity resonates more than polished corporate promos according to 86% of consumers (Stackla).
Stand Out
In a sea of Instagram stories, a well-designed template will capture attention and leave an impression on viewers better than a typical story.
Why Templates Are Trending
Wondering why templates have become so popular? Here are a few key reasons:
- Interactive – Templates are intrinsically engaging and fun to participate in for users.
- Shareable – The viral, word-of-mouth nature of templates expands reach rapidly.
- Provide Insights – Templates reveal detailed insights into your audience‘s interests and preferences.
- Authentic – User-generated responses feel more genuine than branded content.
- Drive Growth – Templates increase profile visits and follows from new users discovering you.
- On-Brand – Templates allow full custom branding that reinforce your visual identity.
- Memorable – Templates‘ visual impact leaves a stronger impression than regular story content.
For both brands and audiences, it‘s a win-win!
Why Templates Beat Built-In Interactive Stickers
You‘re probably wondering how templates stack up against Instagram‘s built-in interactive stickers like questions, polls and sliders. Here‘s why templates come out on top:
- Further reach – Templates drive sharing to expose you to new demographics unlike built-in stickers.
- Richer insights – Templates reveal more nuanced audience data vs binary poll responses.
- More branding control – Templates allow complete custom branding.
- Higher entertainment value – Templates are more intrinsically fun and engaging.
- Stronger memorability – Templates leave a more memorable visual impression.
While polls and questions serve a purpose, templates take engagement to the next level!
Tips for Creating Effective Templates
Ready to start designing your own templates? Use these pro tips:
Match Your Brand Identity
Incorporate your color scheme, logo, fonts and overall visual style so your templates feel like an extension of your brand.
Here‘s an example:
Choose Topics Strategically
Pick timely, trending topics that your audience will be excited to engage with. Avoid overdone formats like Q&As.
Include Interactive Elements
Add question boxes, fill-in-the-blanks, sliders and quizzes to boost engagement.
Here‘s a template using a slider:
Create a unique hashtag for your templates that users can include to extend reach.
Optimize for Mobile
Simplify your design so it‘s easy to use on mobile. 94% of Instagram users access Stories exclusively via mobile.
Change It Up
Introduce fresh templates frequently based on trending topics, holidays, events etc to keep followers engaged.
Step-By-Step Guide to Your First Template
Ready to make your own template? Follow this step-by-step guide:
Pick Your Topic
Choose something timely and relevant to your audience. Get inspiration from trends or current events.
Sketch Your Layout
Map out the format and interactive elements before designing. This planning will come in handy.
Design the Visuals
Create the template canvas using your brand colors, fonts, logo and graphics. Make it eye-catching!
Add Interactive Stickers
Drop in sliders, questions or fill-in-the-blanks stickers where you want engagement.
Include Branding
Add your username, logo, hashtag or anything viewers need to identify and tag you.
Preview Mobile Version
See how your template looks on a phone and optimize if needed.
Post and Promote Engagement
Share your finished template! Prompt users to fill it out in your caption and respond to engagement.
Once you get the hang of it, creating templates is a breeze!
Apps to Easily Design Templates
If you want a shortcut for designing beautiful templates, use one of these handy apps:
Canva
Free online graphic design app with customizable templates sized for Instagram stories. Super user-friendly!
Over
Mobile app with thousands of templates in every format, topic and interactive style. Just add your own branding.
Storyluxe
App offering professionally designed and branded Instagram story templates. Lots of design assets included.
Unfold
Template toolkit with plenty of stylish layouts to modify. Make templates in minutes!
These apps provide pre-made templates to edit and personalize quickly.
Sizing Your Templates Correctly
To ensure your templates look great on Instagram stories, use these recommended sizes:
- Full Screen: 1080px by 1920px
- Vertical: 1080px by 1919px
- Horizontal: 1920px by 1080px
Sticking to standard dimensions prevents awkward cropping issues when people view your story.
Encouraging User Engagement
Once you share your template, encourage participation:
- Prompt responses in your caption and ask followers to fill it out.
- Request tagging so you can find and re-share responses.
- Offer to feature the most creative responses.
- Reply back with positive feedback when you see participation.
- Remind followers to check out your template if engagement is low.
The more you actively nudge your audience, the more engagement your templates will receive!
Gaining Audience Insights
One of the most valuable outcomes of templates is learning about your followers. Pay attention to:
- Interests – What products, hobbies, places etc do they mention frequently?
- Values – What beliefs, causes and opinions come up a lot?
- Demographics – What age, location and gender data can you gather?
- Habits – What daily routines and behaviors emerge?
- Content preferences – What questions and formats do they engage with most?
Use these learnings to fine-tune your Instagram strategy and content!
Growing Your Follower Base with Templates
The reach-expanding effect of templates can become a significant growth driver for your account.
With each person that discovers you via a template and follows you, your potential reach grows.
To maximize this:
- Ensure your username is prominently visible on each template.
- Encourage tagging so you‘re credited.
- Ask influencers to co-create joint templates.
- Promote top templates through Instagram ads to reach an even bigger audience.
Over time, templates can dramatically expand your follower base beyond just your current reach!
Key Takeaways
Here are the key points to remember about Instagram story templates:
- 📈 Templates increase engagement, reach and followers
- 💬 They provide valuable audience insights you can apply
- 🎨 Well-designed templates grab attention with visual impact
- 📱 Optimizing for mobile is crucial
- 🤳 Encouraging participation and sharing drives results
- 📊 Include branding so followers can credit you
- 🛠Apps like Canva make template creation easy
Ready to expand your reach and grow your Instagram with templates? Just follow these tips and you‘ll be well on your way to success.
Let me know if you have any other questions! I‘m always happy to help fellow Instagrammers.
Related Articles:
- How to Add Interactive Stickers to Your Instagram Stories
- 15 Best Design Apps for Creating Instagram Content
- Instagram Story Ideas to Captivate Your Audience
- Best Times to Post on Instagram for Maximum Engagement
- How to Make Templates for Instagram Posts
